Otterbein’s first J-term received mixed reviews from students, faculty and staff in an Otterbein360 survey.
According to the survey, almost 50 percent of students who participated in J-term plan to participate again next year.
Results also revealed that 58.5 percent of students said that they found the dining options to be inconvenient, while no one reported problems with housing accommodations.
After Otterbein’s switch to the semester system, the addition of J-term allowed students to take an optional three-week intensive course during the month of January.
More than a thousand students participated in the academic term, and almost a hundred classes were offered.
Seven overseas programs were also available. This allowed students the opportunity to explore countries such as Chile, Belize and England.
Several students suggested that the Otter Bean and the OtterDen/C-Store should have been open to provide more flexible dining options for students with demanding schedules.
In terms of course load, 43.4 percent of those surveyed said that they found their classes to be “moderately intense,” while only 20.8 percent considered their classes “not intense” and 20.8 percent considered them to be “very intense.”
Deanna Heermann, counselor in the Center for Student Success, said that she saw no problems with J-term.
“It was a positive thing for students to be able to dive into one class without a lot of other things to worry about,” she said.
According to Heermann, the school is planning to offer more classes next year because there was such a good response this year.
Addy Passaro, junior athletic training major, took an online course over J-term. “I liked it because it got a class out of the way, but the class felt too rushed … It’s hard to cram so much information into such a short period of time,” Passaro said.
Many students said that lowering the intensity of classes and having more dining options would have improved their J-term experience.
Some students proposed a short break before spring semester. In the survey, one student said, “I think that there should be a week break between J-term and spring semester … I know that for the student who didn’t (participate in) J-term, there was a long break, but for those of us who did, it was overwhelming and too stressful.”
Another surveyed student said, “This was the first J-term, and no one knew what to expect. However, the academic level
of the classes were so varied that none were the equivalent of others. While my roommate and I earned the same amount of credits for our class, she was writing at least one paper a day when I only had to write two the entire term.”
Other surveyed students said that J-term ran smoothly and did not need any modification.
“Maybe I’m biased because I really loved my class, but I really enjoyed J-term. It was a nice break from a full schedule, and now that it’s (over), I feel ready to get back to being really busy again,” a student said in the survey.
